Wolfe pack learns about map from cross-country traveler

Trucker helps Twin Branch pupils with U.S. geography.

Trucker helps Twin Branch pupils with U.S. geography.

June 01, 2007|VIRGINIA RANSBOTTOM Tribune Staff Writer

The Wolfe pack knows its states. They learned from trucker Doug Tillotson who sent the pack postcards while traveling across the country. Throughout the year, Jennifer Wolfe's fourth- and fifth-grade class at Twin Branch Model School has been keeping track of Doug's travels with a pushpin on a map. The pins were connected by string to show his direction, distance traveled and states crossed. The project was dubbed "Where is Doug?" During the last week of school, Doug pulled his big, red rig near the school for his correspondents to get a peek inside. Doug's wife, Mary, donated and passed out red "Where is Doug?" T-shirts showing a map of the United States and the claim that "The Wolfe pack knows its states." Pointing to the states on his T-shirt and naming each location, fifth-grader Roger Krafft backed up that claim. "Most of the states and capitals I couldn't memorize," Roger said. "But now I can name them all." Doug drives a truck Monday through Friday averaging 2,500 miles a week, or 175,000 miles and $52,000 a year in gas. Eleven hours a day, he hauls local products, such as jigsaw puzzles from Tipton and kitchen cabinets from Richmond. He sleeps 10 hours a day in his truck, equipped with a TV, DVD, computer, refrigerator and microwave. When stopping at truck stops along his journey, he'd send the class a postcard and write interesting trivia about the state he was in. "I'd write things like why Pennsylvania is the Keystone State or why Denver is called the Mile High City," Doug said. Doug got the idea from the program, Trucker Buddy International, a nonprofit organization that assigns a pen pal relationship between professional truck drivers and schoolchildren. The program mentors in reading, writing, geography, math, social studies and history. "I decided to do it on my own so I could get assigned to my daughter, Georgia's class," Doug said. "When I sent a postcard from the state of Georgia, it was a really big deal. They also learned about peaches and who Jimmy Carter was." Georgia gave tours of the truck's cab to classmates while her mother and father told about the truck's features and safety issues. Doug said many truckers no longer blow their horn in response to a child pulling an imaginary chord because it startles the parent driving. "Also you should tell your parents if they can't see my mirror, I can't see them," Doug said. "They need to stay back a safe distance. Principal Mickey Roelandts also learned a thing or two. "I just learned that what I thought was a bunk bed at the top of the truck is actually a wind dam for better mileage!" Roelandts said. "This is just a once in a lifetime opportunity and it's nice to have a dad involved."Staff writer Virginia Ransbottom: vransbottom@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6344